I know most people here don't live in The Great State™ but there's a pretty comprehensive set of initiatives moving through our legislature aimed at protecting vaccine hold-outs.
Right now there at are at least six bills targeting this problem from different angles. At least one forbids the state (not private entities) from requiring vaccination as a condition of employment, others prohibit the government from coercing citizens by any means to get vaccinated. A couple provide unemployment benefits to those whose jobs were lost because of their vaccine status. There's one preventing school districts from taking adverse actions against students who refused vaccinations. And a couple attempt to prohibit private entities from discriminating on vaccine status, one of which would institute a civil cause of action against any discriminatory actor.
I don't know what will pass and what won't. The legislators I've talked to were broadly supportive of these initiatives, and the bills have diverse sponsorship which bodes well. I'm gonna keep track of the bills as they move along, so we'll see what happens. I'm hoping we join Texas and Florida as the holy trinity of based states.
Edit: Now that I look, some of these bills got introduced as early as last November. Nice to see some folks were ahead of the game.
Second Edit: A couple of these are stuck in committee, one is dead, some encouraging movement on others. I'm pretty confident we will see several of these pass.
Third Edit: I may start tracking legislation that pertains to resisting Biden's recent "ghost gun" bans and other gun control executive orders. EOs are overridden by legislation, and several states are already working on new laws to harden their 2nd amendment rights. Will have to check on this in the future.
There are tons of HIPPA and medical privacy issues for private employers trying to force vaccines on employees in the US. The only places I can see that being different is for those who actually work in the medical professions and certain government jobs like the military.
I've gone through my fair share of experimental vaccines as I was in the military but don't plan on doing this Covid vaccine until they do the full FDA testing that is required for normal vaccines. Besides it is best to let those who need or want it to get it first.
Well there's plenty of precedent for employers and schools mandating that employees and children respectively get vaccinated. The main difference being those were all FDA approved, and as you say, we're potentially going to mandate taking emergency authorized experimental drugs.
You'd probably know better than I, but wasn't there a massive controversy over experimental smallpox vaccinations on members of the military? Might be some interesting precedents there that can be applied to civilian life.
Children going to public schools fall into a limbo area since they don't have full civil rights because they're, well, children. Parents always have options of not using public schools and do homeschooling or some other private/charter school.
If there was one with small pox vaccine, it happened after I left the military. The one that had the most issues that I know of was the Anthrax vaccine which had many restarts of implementation for over a decade of various controversies. It's a series of five shots that takes almost three years to get the full set. I've had both the full set of Anthrax and Small Pox vaccines.
Thanks, you're right, it was anthrax.
YO, I talked to a friend of mine who was in the infantry during 2009.
I learned that this was the time during the swine flu virus. Apparently his unit had "a" vaccine deployed to them, and it wasn't even done the way civilians are - going to a pharmacy or doctor. They said they gave the vaccine to the medic for the unit, and the medic was required to administer it.
Apparently that unit was told that they were required to take a vaccine for the swine flu, but nobody told them it was an experimental vaccine. It was taken as a nasal spray and it was also supposed to protect against the flu.
He said after he took it he was pretty much out of duty for a week because his reactions to it were severe. He said nobody above or below his rank informed him that they were being used as guinea pigs for the nasal spray variant of the vaccine.
I only learned about this a week ago after doing some digging. That was mind blowing that our soldiers are used as guinea pigs for that shit.
Strange, they usually don't go around applying experimental vaccines unless they get permission from the soldiers to apply it or there is a critical mission situation that has a high chance of exposing soldiers to that virus.
I was actually part of an experimental vaccine trial that tossed me a few extra bucks against some virus that got really nasty and like barracks situations. I don't remember the name but I remember the virus as one of my old air force buddies actually had an outbreak when he was going through training and it killed one of the guys in the barracks and knocked about ten other guys down for a little while.
Soldiers have always been used as guinea pigs. I mean, who better? They have already sold their lives to the government, dying during development of counter-bioweapons is as good as dying in the line of fire, right? It's the experimentation on nonconsenting civilians that has me fucked up (see: Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, MK Ultra, etc.)
The older folks here are by and large anti-authoritarian, distrustful of government, and resentful of mandates. I think that will be the guiding ethos, overriding their own personal health concerns.
Feelings about the vaccine and about the passport are hopefully orthogonal. I got the J&J vaccine (so far my blood is still liquid) but fuck if I'll comply with a vax passport.
I wouldn't be too concerned about the J&J if you had the shot for a few weeks on the blood clotting issue. I would still be concerned with the other possible long term effects of the vaccine beyond that since we haven't done proper testing on the long term effects.
Shit, maybe the South really will rise again...
Tennessee has been my fallback state in case my current state stays cucked (I'm giving it a year).
It's still in business. The whole Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area never stopped. It's like a refugee camp for fat white people.
I remember going to Gatlinburg as a kid, it was like a tourist town but for freedom. Dangerous activities like bungee jumping and indoor skydiving, delicious unhealthy food, and just an all-around good time.
And plenty of stores that sell nunchucks and shitty katanas.
That too
It's not for me. The hiking, fishing, and kayaking outside of Gatlinburg is pretty phenomenal and doesn't cost a cent (except for trout stamps).
Dollywood was the first theme park in the nation to reopen- by a wide margin I think.
Holy shit, how is Tennessee actually fucking awake on this shit? I actually like the fact that the state is trying to do its best to protect people from getting fucked over because the Biden administration is trying to ostracize them.
The state is literally doing the will of the people by saying it's fine to be a vaccine holdout, which should hold no fucking stigma to it whatsoever. Having skepticism about the vaccine, ESPECIALLY when you're in the group that does not need it (fit 20-30 year olds) is perfectly fine.
It's a weird state in that it fought on both sides of the Civil War. A lot of people here really, really hate being told what to do.